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PrevPrevious EpisodeStart of RLDS Church & Mormon Schisms Tour
Next ExpisodeAbles’ Canadian Mission & Escape from the Mob #BlackHistoryMonthNext

Early Life of Elijah Ables #BlackHistoryMonth

Table of Contents: Early Life of Elijah Ables #BlackHistoryMonth

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February is #BlackHistoryMonth and we’re starting off with Russell Stevenson, a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University in African-American studies.  He has written a biography of Elijah Ables, and we’re going to learn more about the first documented black man to hold the priesthood.  I’ll ask if Elijah Ables was born a slave, and we’ll learn as much as we can about his life before he joined the LDS Church.

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Russell:  We do not have a lot of hard data on Elijah’s upbringing.  We know something about where he’s from.  We know that he was born in western Maryland.  There are a number of potential counties according to different documents where he could have been born in some say Frederick, others say Washington, others say Hancock.  We know that he was born at some point between 1808-1812.

As far as his religious upbringing, we know basically nothing about that.  We don’t even know with certainty that he was a slave.  Statistically speaking that part of Maryland, the free African-American versus the slave African-American ratio, it broke in favor of slaves.  Statistically speaking he was probably a slave at some point, but beyond that speculation we don’t know with certainty.

Really the first hard documentation we have of Elijah’s life comes through a photograph that we have, George A. Smith family photograph collection and it identifies his baptism year as being 1832.  Thanks to that photo, we have some sense of how old he was, which is again, somewhere between 20-24 years old, but the documentation is pretty limited.

Was he light enough to pass for white?  What was his occupation?  Russell answers these questions!  Check out our conversation…..

Elijah Ables - Early Life of Elijah Ables #BlackHistoryMonth - Mormon History Podcast

Don’t forget to check out our interviews with Margaret Young, Dr. Paul Reeve, Dr. Mark Staker, and Dr. Darron Smith as part of your studies of #BlackHistoryMonth!

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Get more information on the people and things discussed in this episode:

  • Theology: LDS Priesthood
  • Black Mormon History, Racial Priesthood/Temple Ban
  • Historical Mentions Elijah Abel, Elijah Ables, Mormon History
  • Tags: #BlackHistoryMonth, black Mormon history, Elijah Abel, Elijah Ables, GT Podcast, iTunes, LDS Church, LDS Temple and priesthood ban, LDS Temple ban, Mormon priesthood ban, Priesthood ban, priesthood ban LDS, racism, was priesthood ban inspired

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PrevPrevious EpisodeStart of RLDS Church & Mormon Schisms Tour
Next ExpisodeAbles’ Canadian Mission & Escape from the Mob #BlackHistoryMonthNext
  • Date: January 29, 2018
  • Theology: LDS Priesthood
  • Black Mormon History, Racial Priesthood/Temple Ban
  • Historical Mentions Elijah Abel, Elijah Ables, Mormon History
  • Tags: #BlackHistoryMonth, black Mormon history, Elijah Abel, Elijah Ables, GT Podcast, iTunes, LDS Church, LDS Temple and priesthood ban, LDS Temple ban, Mormon priesthood ban, Priesthood ban, priesthood ban LDS, racism, was priesthood ban inspired
  • Posted By: RickB

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Rick Bennett, Host of Gospel Tangents

Rick Bennett is the friendly, independent historian at the heart of Gospel Tangents LDS Podcast: The Best Source for Mormon History, Science, and Theology. When he isn't interviewing Mormon scholars, prophets, and others, he is teaching math and statistics at Utah Valley University. He also freelances as a research biostatistician in the fields of Dermatology and Traumatic Brian Injuries, as well as in the network television/cable T.V. industries as a sports statistician. Rick holds a Master of Statistics Degree from the University of Utah.

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